A process for generating a nitrogen-based gas, comprising the steps of: (i) combining a secondary reducing gas including at least one reducing gas with a primary nitrogen gas including 0.5-5% by volume of oxygen, the combining of the secondary gas being performed according to an uncontrolled all-or-nothing method; (ii) reacting the primary gas and the secondary gas in a catalytic deoxygenation reactor so as to obtain a nitrogen-based reaction gas which includes water vapor; and (iii) removing at least a part of the water vapor present in the nitrogen-based reaction gas by cooling the reaction gas under pressure to induce formation of a liquid phase and then extracting the liquid phase from the reaction gas under pressure to obtain a purified reaction gas

Many industrial lasers need nitrogen as an assist gas to help in the processing of materials. The laser cutting process uses a laser beam to melt or chemically alter the material being cut. The assist gases are used at the point where the laser interacts with the material and is used to remove the molten material and/or to chemically react with the material to produce additional thermal energy.

Depending on the process and material being cut, it is important that the assist gas is at the appropriate quality, not only to keep lasers operating reliably, but also to ensure the highest process productivity. For instance, stainless steel cutting requires some of the highest purity nitrogen - levels above 99.9%....